Egypt's intelligence chief held talks with Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al on Tuesday aimed at containing a crisis after West Bank raids by Palestinian national security forces on Hamas targets sparked clashes.
Damascus-based Mesha’al’s visit to Cairo is his first in many months, and the talks come two days after Egyptian officials met leaders from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group, which launched last week’s raids that killed nine people in ensuing violence in the West Bank city of Qalqilya.
Egyptian officials met on Sunday with Ahmad Qurei, who leads Fatah negotiators in Cairo-sponsored reconciliation talks.
Also yesterday, Palestinian security men shot and seriously wounded a driver they believed was going to ram the convoy of a senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, police and medics said.
The incident in Ramallah underscored a rise in tension and violence between his Fatah movement and members of Hamas.
Meanwhile, Police have arrested six Hamas members in the West Bank suspected of planning acts against the Palestinian Authority and seized more than a million euros from them, a senior official said.
Mayor Jamal Muheissen said: "We have seized one million euros (Dh5.1 million) and 21,000 Jordanian dinars (Dh109,182) from two of the people arrested," he said.
Hamas confirmed that six of its members had been arrested.